Scott Stinson: Nick Nurse departs from tradition, team still in 'testing process' as training camp period ends

Even though training camp is officially over, these Raptors under coach Nick Nurse are just starting to mess about, a stark departure from recent Raptors teams, which preached continuity and consistency as a key strength

TORONTO — When the NBA Finals finished in June and the Golden State Warriors had thumped the Cleveland Cavaliers, again, the result was almost immediately considered pre-ordained.

It wasn’t in the moment, though. Game 1 turned on a late overturned foul call, a missed Cavs free throw, and then J.R. Smith literally forgetting the score. For Game 2, the Warriors inserted JaVale McGee into the starting lineup. This caused various tremors of shock in the press seats. McGee, the well-travelled big man on the short list of Players Most Likely to Dunk Ball Off Own Head, had appeared for all of three minutes in the previous series. Did the Warriors think they needed to match Smith with a blooper reel of their own? It seemed like they weren’t just courting disaster, they were giving it a ring and asking it to meet their parents.

McGee immediately made several dunks, didn’t miss a shot all game, and the Warriors rolled to an easy win. He started the next two games, as Golden State completed the sweep.

All of which is to say, it is never too late for the NBA to be surprising. Even with an all-time great team like the Warriors, in the most predictable of Finals matchups, it can take until Game 101 for the coaches to come up with an effective curveball.

And all of that is worth remembering, as this piece finally gets around to mentioning the Toronto Raptors, that patience will have to be in considerable supply when it comes to Canada’s only NBA concern. If a team as fully formed as the Warriors can still be tinkering in mid-June, what does that say about a group like the Raptors, which has a new head coach, new systems and two new (presumptive) starters?

FILE – In this Sept. 29, 2018, file photo,Â Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse gestures during the second half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers, in Vancouver. Nurse has head coaching experience at the college level, in Europe, and in the NBA D-League, where he won league titles with two teams.Jonathan Hayward /
The Canadian Press

It says that even though training camp is officially over, these Raptors under coach Nick Nurse are just getting started with the messing about. Asked this week about how long he will continue to try new things, Nurse didn’t flinch: the first 40 or 50 games, he said. This is a stark departure from recent Raptors teams, which preached continuity and consistency as a key strength. Dwane Casey, the reigning Coach of the Year who was fired after the season, used to say that there wasn’t much time during the grind of a campaign to try new things. But his former charges will attempt to do otherwise.

“I really think that we are obviously playing to win every night but we are also, obviously, trying to max this team’s potential out at the right time of the year,” Nurse said. “So it’s a gradual testing, learning process that we’re going through.”

And that means that many more questions surround this team than is normal for October. After five years of “can they do it in the playoffs?,” the new question is — no, wait, it’s the same question. But there are others, too: Is Kawhi Leonard healthy enough to withstand a full season? Will he be happy enough here to consider sticking around? Will Kyle Lowry make the on-court adjustments to the new systems and new teammates? And will he make the off-court adjustments to the loss of his good friend DeMar DeRozan?

Lowry has proclaimed himself ready and eager to play, although if you are the tea-leaf reading sort he seems at least mildly grumpier than his normal baseline level of grumpy.

Still, he says he knows this collection of Raptors has the potential to be very good. “We’re going to try to win a championship,” he said, while acknowledging that it may take some time to work things out.

“We’re not going to be hitting on all cylinders right away,” Lowry said. “Everything’s going to take some patience.”

Asked if it was fun to be trying all these new things, he was blunt: “It’s fun when you win.”

That part, at least in the regular season, should not be a particular concern. Danny Green, who came to the Raptors in the DeRozan trade, said this team was probably the deepest he has ever been a part of, and then he immediately noted that he was aware of the significance of that statement, given his championship history with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s not wrong. The Raptors have so many quality pieces that, even if Nurse goes full mad-scientist with new combinations and schemes from week to week, they should pile up wins against an Eastern Conference that no longer includes LeBron James, the franchise’s bête noire.

Of course, all of that is merely a set up for the real challenge. The Raptors have been trying to years to shed the playoff-choker label, to convince the rest of the league that they are for real. Last year’s tease only ended up cementing their reputation further as a team that falls apart when the games really count. Which is why Leonard and Green are here, and DeRozan most assuredly is not.

For now, though, there is much tinkering to do.

“I would imagine we’ll be doing things in February or March that we haven’t thought of yet,” Nurse said.